Before I continue with the final day’s misadventures, a few observations for riding in these weather conditions:1. Don’t do it. But if you must then:2. Heated grips will help your state of mind;3. Waterproof luggage, or keep stuff dry in packets inside luggage.4. “Shower caps” over tank bags / tail bags;5. Pinlocks in Visors;6. Extra pairs of riding socks;7. Packets for in you boots (Worn like socks), especially for MX boots;8. Rain suit that fits over your jacket AND over your boots9. A pair of waterproof kitchen style gloves and glove liners because no matter how waterproof you think your riding gloves are, over time they will become waterlogged and freeze in the wind chill.

The air in the morning was very cold. Not in a bad way, rather it was a bit like walking into a well stocked walk-in cold room at a bottle store but without the beer. The sun was warm and the skies clear. After a hearty breakfast of instant oats and instant coffee, a far cry from the pampering at Mountain Shadow, we loaded up and ceremoniously pushed the 950 up and down the street till it roared into life.

Heading out of town towards Naudesnek, I felt a twinge if disappointment when we passed the Carlisleshoek pass sign, as this was meant to have been our route home via the Traverse. Nevertheless the scenery was breathtaking as we continued up Naudesnek Pass. There was no dust, no vehicles. Our views of the snow covered hill sides was awesome, I could see that there was no way we could have ridden the traverse. The road was icy and wet in places, and the snow which started to appear kept off the road.We came around a corner and the following bend in the road swept up a gentle slope to the left. Suddenly, without warning, we were on compacted ice tracks made by vehicles, the middle mannetjie and sides of the road were untouched snow! I was in the front, and gingerly kept the throttle on to keep momentum but only got perhaps fifty meters up the ice before stopping. The little XT with the least suitable tyre (Motoz GPS) was coming up behind me and I made him stop. The other guys were in varying states of disarray in the ice. I estimated we had at least 12km to go before the top of Naudesnek, and who knew the state of the descent on the other side?There were no vehicles on the Pass, so it seemed like a bad idea to continue, or to even attempt it.

Phil the masochist was keen to press on through the snow and ice, but the rest of us stood our ground and made the decision to put our tail between our legs and head back past Rhodes and take the long way round. Just turning the bikes around required quite a team effort, and we found that by getting the front wheel onto the ice and pushing on it a bit had the whole bike swinging into more or less the right direction. We wound back down into Rhodes, defeated for the time being once again by the elements. How quickly things can go south, conditions beyond one’s control.

Graham decided to head back to PMB on his own at this point, wanting to get there before sunset and having to attend to a distraught family after one of their dogs had passed away during the night, he headed off towards the N2.

The rest of us, now numbering four, retraced our tracks towards Mountain Shadow Hotel. The roads had dried out considerably in the past 24hrs or so and it allowed faster speeds. As we approached, for the third time on this trip, an entry to Bastervoetslaan Pass, Rory suggested we do it. He wasn’t being serious but I pretended he was. We all stopped and a fair amount of debate and speculation over the condition of the Pass, time available for mishaps etc continued for ten minutes. It was two against two but eventually I managed to cajole Rory into riding the Pass, even though every fiber of my being was screaming “Very Bad Idea!!”

The only consolation was that we had ridden this Pass in 2016, so we kind of knew what to expect...

I’m not sure how but Rory managed to pop one fork seal and his rear shock on the way up to the top. “Dr Phil” noticed fork oil all over the 950’s front wheel on the way down the other side. “The front feels kak and the back feels like a pogo stick” quipped Rory.There was no snow, almost no ice and very little water on Basters in spite of the prophets’ of doom’s prediction.

The views from the top were particularly spectacular since the air was so clean.

Well the rocky sections near the top from both sides had definitely deteriorated (got better) since 2016 and the lower parts had been worked on by farmers and was a lot easier (so it had got worse).

Unfortunately we didn’t take any more photo’s on the Pass. It was great to be able to salvage a decent pass from the Ben10, and to have missed it would have been to miss out. We had to slab it all the way home after that, rolling into PMB at 7.30pm, 12hrs after we started. Some random shots:Finally after 1200km of which around 50% at a guess was tar, this is a pic of my Motoz Desert HT:

Great report and super photos. They alone make me feel very cold !" Well now you'll just have go back and do the passes you missed out this time. Thanks for telling your story. Very envious, but not for the cold !